A shitfaced Giamatti crying his eyes out, drinking from the bottle, while collapsed on the floor of a shower, cursing Spider-man's name. In the Rhino costume. In 3D. That would get my overpriced ticket money.

I never saw TASM. Exactly how many characters and subplots is this sequel planning to juggle?

My guess is, that if this is true, we're going to get a CGI Rhino out of it. I can't see making Giamatti a hulking physical threat, but maybe I'm being uncreative.

1940s actor Rondo Hatton, who was deformed by acromegaly and became the later inspiration for "Lothar" in The Rocketeer, had a perfect comic book villain face (unfortunately for him).

But most film fans agree that he probably wasn't any taller than 5'8". They just picked good camera angles for him. If they give Giamatti the right costume, the right make-up, and the right box to stand on, his acting will take care of the rest. And then they can sweeten the size illusion with digital tricks for the action scenes.

Must be the lack of "zis" and "zat" in the comics, but I had no idea Rhino was supposed to be Russian. I'm pretty sure I've only ever heard him with the standard issue "Bronx-ish" villain accent in other media.

1940s actor Rondo Hatton, who was deformed by acromegaly and became the later inspiration for "Lothar" in The Rocketeer, had a perfect comic book villain face (unfortunately for him).

But most film fans agree that he probably wasn't any taller than 5'8". They just picked good camera angles for him. If they give Giamatti the right costume, the right make-up, and the right box to stand on, his acting will take care of the rest. And then they can sweeten the size illusion with digital tricks for the action scenes.

I had always figured he was like 6'4". You may well be right - lots of careful angles and forced perspective.